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Farm Bill Update: July 12, 2013 House Passes Farm Bill Without Food Stamps

Fri, 12 Jul 2013 18:44:23 -0700

Farm Bill Update: July 12, 2013 House Passes Farm Bill Without Food Stamps

ON Thursday June 11, the House of Representatives passed its version of the Farm Bill along strictly party lines. But it was more than just a regular Farm Bill---because it was less than a regular Farm Bill.

They took out the entire $80 billion section about SNAP (more commonly called Food Stamps).

They aren’t getting rid of food stamps, but they did take food stamps out of its traditional home in the Farm Bill. It was a strategy to get some kind of Farm Bill passed---and it probably revealed a desire among many of those who passed it to eliminate the program, a slap in the face to the 46 million in our country who have trouble getting enough to eat.

(For basics on the Farm Bill see the Farm Bill section in the menu bar.)

Background: The House was embarrassed by its failure to pass a Farm Bill a couple of weeks ago. The Democrats were joined by a group of Republicans, part of whom were unhappy about the big farm subsidies (Huge payments going to farmers to keep the price of their crops high, or to pay for crop insurance, and mostly going to wealthy farmers, not guys in overalls), and part of whom were unhappy because they didn’t think $20 billion in Food Stamp cuts was ENOUGH (These are the guys who deep down inside REALLY WOULD get rid of food stamps if they had the chance.)

So the leaders of the House cleverly figured out if they split the Farm Bill in two ---one part just dealing with ag subsidies, one part with food stamps---they would bring back enough republican votes in each case, to pass the bill.

So why are food stamps in the Farm Bill in the first place? Well, back when food stamps began, most of our food was grown here in the USA, and so food stamps were seen as a subsidy for farmers as much as for poor people. Tying the two together had another advantage. The urban, poor advocates, who wanted food stamps, would be forced to compromise with the rural, ag advocates, who wanted to keep good prices for their crops. “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” In this way, the Farm Bill was, for decades, the one piece of legislation that Republicans and Democrats, urban and rural representatives could all agree on. There were some snags like in 2007 when the bill got delayed to 2008, but for the most part it was a perfect system.

Since the rise of the Tea Party republicans (many of whom hate the ag subsidies because they represent billions in government spending, and nearly all of whom hate food stamps), things have gotten complicated. There are so many extreme right wingers in the House now that the Republicans can’t get all their 234 folks to vote together. The Democrats with their 201 votes have so far united against the Republican bills, which is a rarity as the Democrats are usually the party that has a big split between conservatives (the “Blue Dog” Democrats) and liberals.

So if food stamps is out of the Farm Bill, does that mean no program? Well, we are just talking about the House bill here. The Senate passed its own farm bill a month or two ago. It has $4 billion in cuts in food stamps, not nearly as much as the House’s earlier proposed $20 billion but still bad. Nonetheless, the process is that the two houses are supposed to meet and reconcile their bills and come up with a single Farm Bill to send to the President. And the Senate has been watching the shenanigans in the House with taking the food stamps out, and the leadership of the Senate (Harry Reid, and Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow) is saying “No, no, no. we ain’t buying it. You give us a Farm Bill with both pieces in it.”

The House Ag chair, Frank Lucas, is exasperated with the Tea Party, but really believes the House can create a separate food-stamps-only bill. If that happens, they’ll probably put even more cuts in it than their original $20 billion proposal. That is not a certainty though. The Senate may try to push the House into accepting THEIR version of food stamps that’s already in their version of the Farm Bill. Another possibility is that they will just agree to an extension of the current 2008 Farm Bill. Finally, they may deal with these programs through other bills, such as “Appropriations” bills (the federal budget.)

The Farm Bill involves lots of money and what looks like shady dealing. You have guys like Rep. Steve Fincher of Tennessee. He’s one of the Republicans who urged the $20 billion in food stamp cuts in their first, failed version of the Farm Bill from two weeks ago. The same guy also pushed through a $9 billion program in additional money for cotton farmers and peanut farmers. He happens to be a cotton farmer himself who made $70,000 in 2012, from a payment to cotton farmers in last year’s Farm Bill. He’s okay with kids going hungry, but he wants his cut.

Stay tuned for more information pdf

Segment on KPFK Uprising, July 12, featuring Frank Tamborello, director of Hunger Action LA:
http://uprisingradio.org/home/2013/07/12/house-republicans-target-food-stamps/

From Bread for the World : Ask Your Reps To Include Ending Hunger in Immigration Reform

Mon, 8 Jul 2013 18:00:30 -0700

From Bread for the World: “This week, leadership within the House of Representatives is expected to begin discussion on how the body will approach immigration reform.With your help, we made history by passing bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform legislation in the Senate. Now, we need you to move the House of Representatives!”

Call your U.S. representative today! Urge your U.S. representative to support comprehensive immigration reform.

Tell your representative to support immigration reform that 1. addresses the root causes of undocumented immigration, such as extreme poverty in countries of origin, and

2. does not discourage or prohibit legal immigrants and their U.S. citizen family members from receiving needed assistance through federal programs such as WIC, SNAP, and EITC.

Bread for the World recognizes that undocumented immigrants in the United States disproportionately experience hunger. That’s why faithful immigration reform must treat immigration as a hunger issue — both here and abroad. Learn more about Immigration and Hunger at this link.

Call your U.S. representative at 800-826-3688.

Feeding Kids in the Summer

Mon, 8 Jul 2013 17:57:00 -0700

A great Washington Post article about the Summer Lunch program in Tennessee, using an old bus to reach remote areas. The article however does imply that the Summer Lunch program is a new thing: it’s been around since the late 1970s.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/in-rural-tennessee-a-new-way-to-help-hungry-children-a-bus-turned-bread-truck/2013/07/06/c93c5eec-e292-11e2-aef3-339619eab080_story.html?wprss&google_editors_picks=true

L.A. County tops list of counties with children at risk of hunger
http://www.latimes.com/la-me-ln-county-children-at-risk-of-hunger-20130614,0,5528079.story

Schools in various LA County districts including LA Unified, have in some cases reinstated summer lunch programs where they have dropped them in recent years. Some have partnered with foundations and with LA Regional Food Bank to provide meals where funding hasn’t been available:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-summer-food-20130705,0,4703583.story

Turning to Healthy Eating

Mon, 8 Jul 2013 17:55:06 -0700

Teresa Watanabe in the LA Times details the story of an L.A. family that made dramatic dietary changes after unhealthy eating contributed to the mom’s death. A daughter’s recipe will now be included in meals at L.A. schools

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-esther-20130708,0,5864686.story

Impacts of a “Forgotten” Sequester

Mon, 8 Jul 2013 17:52:58 -0700

Remember the “sequester”? No, not this? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106126/ (Nobody remembers that). I’m talking about the cuts to social spending supposedly matched by equal cuts to military spending as a result of the two political parties not being able to agree in a debate that shouldn’t have been held in the first place. Confused? No worries. The end result is the same: Cuts were made in programs ranging from Head Start to Meals on Wheels. The Coalition on Human Needs has been tracking these cuts, lost as they are in the news of Dwight Howard’s departure from the Lakers.

They have compiled them in these background Reports on Effects of the Sequester. Take a look at them and you’ll see there’s been damage done, in spite of some creative efforts by some agencies to figure out ways around it.

The Summer of SNAP

Mon, 8 Jul 2013 17:48:45 -0700

This summer has seen a lot of activity around SNAP, commonly referred to as Food Stamps and known here in California as CalFresh. 46 million Americans right now (about one in 7) rely on this program to help make ends meet, a consequence of the ongoing recession. It’s a political lightning rod, with conservative forces particularly attacking the program and targeting it for huge cuts in spite of the increased need in the U.S. for food assistance, due to unemployment, employment at low wages, stagnant wages due to such a large pool of people desperate for work, and fixed payments (such as retirement or disability payments) not keeping up with the cost of living.

Nationwide: Most recently, the program was saved from a proposal to cut $20 billion due to the inability of the House to pass its version of the Farm Bill. Salon ran an article recently analyzing what the next move the Republicans who control the House could make:

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/02/how_epic_gop_bumbling_could_inadvertently_save_food_stamps/

The Food Stamp Cadillac : “I saw someone getting crabs with food stamps” and other greatest hits from the anti-government assistance crowd are highlighted in this article by Arthur Delaney. Congressional reps are quick to seize on anecdotal tales and urban legends, regardless of what the full story is or regardless of what statistics say about the low rate of fraud in the SNAP program:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/food-stamps-resentment_n_3518821.html

We wouldn’t need food stamps if?. Many working people get food assistance because their jobs don’t pay enough. Meanwhile, the ranking Republican on the Senate Labor Committee believes there should be no minimum wage.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/lamar-alexander-minimum-wage_n_3498975.html

End the Lifetime Ban on Food Aid for Past Felons: Not all the SNAP news is bad, especially on the state level. The LA Times recently published an editorial agreeing with SB 283, the proposed state legislation that would remove the lifetime ban on persons with past drug felonies from getting CalFresh benefits:

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-calfresh-food-aid-drug-offenders-20130628,0,4750480.story

You can sign on to the petition to support this proposal here:

http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/time-to-end-the-lifetime?source=c.em.mt&r_by=5624332

News: July 8th, 2013

Mon, 8 Jul 2013 17:42:32 -0700

Updated: July 8th, 2013
NEWS / EVENTS / ACTIONS>

Farm Bill Defeated!

Thu, 20 Jun 2013 20:33:17 -0700

The House just voted on the Farm Bill, with the $20 billion proposed cuts in SNAP. It was defeated 195-234. 172 Dems voted against the bill, with SNAP cuts being a major factor for many of them.
Thanks to all of you who made calls, went on visits or rallies to stand up for hungry Americans.

Farm bill fails in the House
By Michael O'Brien, Political Reporter, NBC News
The House failed to pass a major farm bill on Thursday after most Democrats joined with a handful of conservatives to scuttle the nearly $1 trillion legislation.
The House voted 195-234 to defeat the bill, which had been expected to pass. The Senate has already passed its own farm legislation.
Democrats, who were angry about the legislation’s cuts to food stamp programs, largely opposed the measure. Conservative groups like the Club for Growth and the Koch Brothers-linked Americans for Prosperity had meanwhile ratcheted up pressure on Republican lawmakers to oppose the legislation.
The failed vote is somewhat of an embarrassment for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and the rest of the GOP leadership. This is just the latest example of their inability to get Republican legislation over the finish line due to conservatives’ defections on the final vote.
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/20/19060053-farm-bill-fails-in-the-house?lite

House farm bill vote breakdown: GOP: 171 yeas, 62 nays; DEMS: 24 yeas, 172 nays; total: 195-234

News: May 15, 2013

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:12:45 -0700

Updated: May 15th, 2013
NEWS / EVENTS / ACTIONS

Hunger Action Day May 21-22, Sacramento: You’re Invited!

Mon, 6 May 2013 19:10:35 -0700

Hunger Action Day May 21-22, Sacramento: You’re Invited!

The 16th (or possibly 17th) annual Hunger Action Day in Sacramento is May 22 at the state capitol. Everyone concerned about ending hunger is encouraged to participate: low income residents, nonprofit agency staff, clergy of all faiths, doctors, butchers, bakers ,candlestick makers. (Even pro basketball players from teams already eliminated from the playoffs are welcome). Busses leave L.A. the morning of Tuesday May 21 if you like the full experience: or, you can meet us up at the Capitol having gotten around the airport delays thanks to Congress looking out for their priorities (see item 4). To rsvp and find out more contact frank@hungeractionla.org . On Hunger Action Day about 400 people from all over the state will converge on the Capitol to educate our lawmakers about how they can de-criminalize poverty, especially through state bills that support successful recovery after prison and that spare the homeless from being arrested or cited for resting or eating in public (see following items.) See www.hungeractionla.org for the full flyer and list of details.

News: April 3rd 2013

Wed, 3 Apr 2013 09:39:15 -0700

Updated: April 3rd, 2013
NEWS / EVENTS / ACTIONS

News: March 27 2013

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 22:10:21 -0700

Updated: March 27th, 2013

NEWS / EVENTS / ACTIONS